Sweeney Todd: I pod shuffle challenge
by MissAnime111
Summary: A series of short ficlets and one shots each based on a song from my ipod. "That man ruined her life when he was living in the flat just above her head, and he continues to do so even on the other side of the world. The man's perfect face has haunted her dreams for the past 2 years, each and every dream his image becoming more clear and detailed instead of fading away." {Sweenett}
1. Chapter 1

_A/N. Hey there! So i'm fairly new to this fandom, so the characters might be a bit meehyeh - but i'm really passionate about them and I hope that shows :)_

_This is basically just me trying to get back into writing, because I took a break from fanfiction for ages, had writers block and lost all my inspiration to write too. So this is just going to be a small series of ficlets and one shots based on a song from my ipod. _

_They may be solely based on the song, or only loosely based with only the title relating to the story. _

_They aren't going to be very long but i'm still new to these characters, like I said, so I don't really want to be writing a 30-chapter-fic any time soon. I am merely dipping my toes into the water, as it were._

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IPod shuffle challenge

Here without you – Boyce Avenue

Curled into her fading sofa, Nellie clasps her fingers around her mug of steaming tea and stares blankly into the hearth. A day of cooking, serving and attempting small talk with the little amount of customers she gets, spending hours down in a smouldering bake house - the tiredness of a day's work finally getting to her. She drags a small hand through her tangled curls and takes a sip of tea. Business has hardly picked up after Albert's death a month ago, what with having to close the shop for a week or so to plan his funeral. Nellie had kept the shop shut for a further three weeks after that, out of public expectancy that a widow should mourn the death of her late husband. While she loved the man dearly, in her own twisted way, those feelings of sadness and remorse that Nellie had read about so many times in her outdated romance novels just didn't come. Albert's passing had left her with a feeling of indifference, and the guilt hit her like a stone when she realised she only felt those feelings when Benjamin Barker was taken.

Benjamin Barker.

That man ruined her life when he was living in the flat just above her head, and he continues to do so even on the other side of the world. The man's perfect face has haunted her dreams for the past 2 years, each and every dream his image becoming more clear and detailed instead of fading away. It is why she spends most nights, squashed into her sofa, imagining him sitting across from her, his dark curls framing his beautiful, smiling face. Unable and not wanting to shake the façade, Nellie can only smile back into the air, and imagine his strong body crawl across from his side of the sofa to hers and take her small body into his arms, grinning down at her with chocolate brown eyes. And each time he bends his neck to kiss her, she wants to ask about Lucy, about Johanna, about his life above the crumbling ceiling of her living room - but she doesn't. She wants a chance at a normal life; a life which she knows can only have in her dreams. She chases an impossible dream, and sometimes - if she dreams hard enough - the dream almost seems real.

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_Sorry it isn't long, but reviews are love :3_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**: **So here is the next one, sorry for the wait - and the short chapter. I am halfway through the next chapter, though, which is much longer.**

**Please enjoy (however short this may be), and please review. I'd love to know what you think of these little drabbles.**

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2. Innocent – Taylor Swift

Sweeney Todd was not an innocent.

His last scrap of innocence had disappeared the minute he pulled the trigger that was responsible for his first murder. The bullet has driven into the man's chest, ripping through muscle and bone, and suddenly Sweeney's heart had turned to stone, his mind was corrupted and damaged beyond repair. The days of Benjamin Barker had ended – that man was dead to the eyes of the world. Botany Bay had changed that man forever, and in return had created a man so numb to the horrors of the world that he wouldn't so much bat an eye during the act of murder.

So unlike the naivety of Benjamin Barker, who thought the world wasn't such a bad place; that there are never truly bad people - just good people who took the wrong path in life. Sweeney sneers back in memory of the foolish man in disgust. As if. Maybe people are innocent once – a new born baby, for instance, could never know the difference between right and wrong, but given a few years it is just as prone to evil as any other human being.

Benjamin was an innocent; like the fresh blanket of snow that covers a field on a misty winter's morning - untouched and unmarred by human hands and feet, yet so vulnerable that a mere touch can easily destroy that crystal clear perfection. Because underneath lies the cracking, rocky ground, the part that is hidden only to be revealed by the cruel hands of the world - ripping out dirt and rock and all life's imperfections, eventually staining and maiming white with black.

And now Sweeney stands, crimson blood staining his white skin, and he realises he is all that Benjamin Barker wasn't. He is Benjamin Barker's imperfection - a cruel, cracked version of the man that used to be.

He is the dirt that maimed the perfect snow.


End file.
